Hi all! I have used SCM resources before but am just jumping into posting. I’m currently trying to plan for next year and doubting myself. I taught Kinder-2nd as a ps teacher so the early grades were pretty natural for me. However my oldest will be 10 soon and will be in 5th grade in the fall! That’s a bit daunting and overwhelming!
Next year I’ll have grades 5, 3, and 2, all girls. I wrote our all of what I’m thinking for next year. It’s just a step up from our current plan, which is working swimmingly! We do “school” 4 days a week, with our homeschool group and errands on Fridays. Just want to make sure I’m challenging my oldest enough! Thanks in advance for any help.
All/Family:
Literature, History/geography read alouds– CHOW of the world is our spine…we read from it about 2-3 times a month. We love and read a LOT of biographies, historical fiction, fiction and non fiction about other culture, animal stories, poetry, novels/chapter books I loved when I was a kid. The girls narrate orally for almost all our reading, we discuss a lot of what we read/learn, and we do note booking about every other day…sometimes a little more sometimes less.
Bible–365 Days to knowing God for Girls and/or Jesus calling for kids. Seeds Family Worship music (for scripture memory)
Art (Meet the Masters) with our homeschool group on Friday, plus whatever crafting they do on their own time.
Science is with our weekly homeschool group as well. This year we’ve done/will do units about simple machines, famous inventions/inventors, various animals, and the human body. For next year we’re talking about pooling our money for a LEGO education kit, and there are plans for chemistry/matter, earth/space science, and electricity units in the works.
Daily nature walks/outdoor play
Independent reading/audiobooks
Plenty of free play
Kate–10–5th grade:
Math: Rod and Staff finish book 5 and start book 6, living math games/activities, CTC mathematical reasoning F (4 days a week, 2 of the 3 things each day)
All About Me: Keepsake Journal for Kids (3-4 days a week)
Daily Grams 5 (4 days a week)
Mind benders 3 (1-2 days a week)
Piano practice (Daily)
Piano lessons (every other week year round)
She also wants to learn guitar and will be getting a guitar and teach yourself book for her birthday in March so if she sticks with it guitar practice will be added to her to-do list most days as well.
Local youth theatre and SWAMP (On and off late January to June or July)
Swim team (October-January)
Alice–8–3rd grade:
Math: Rod and Staff 3, living math games/activities, CTC mathematical reasoning D (4 days a week, 2 of the 3 each day)
All About Me: Keepsake Journal for Kids (3-4 days a week)
Daily grams 3 (4 days a week)
Violin practice (daily)
Violin lessons (every other week, year round)
Dance lessons–ballet and lyrical/jazz (most of the year, 2-3 days a week)
Possibly soccer or softball in the spring?
Violet–7–2nd grade
Math: Rod and Staff 2, living math games/activities, CTC mathematical reasoning C (4 days a week, 2 of the three each day)
All About Me: Keepsake Journal for Kids (1-2 days a week)
Copywork (1-2 days a week)
Explode the Code books 4 and 5 (3-4 days a week)
Piano practice (daily)
Piano lessons (every other week, year round)
Gymnastics (winter)
Soccer (fall and spring)
We start off our “school day” with devos and chores, then independent/guided work (writing, grammar/phonics, at least 15-20 minutes of silent reading or practice reading to me, math combo, and 20 minutes music practice) typically takes 2-3 hours. Then we take an hour break for lunch and outdoor play and do our reading aloud with oral dictation and notebooking all together for about 30-45 minutes. Is this enough for 5th grade?? Is it time to get something more structured/chronological for history or is our hodgepodge of excellent books and a book of centuries/dictation okay for another year or two? If you think I need a structured history plan, what do you recommend?
Thanks so much! Sorry this is so long and rambling.
It sounds like plenty to me. If you are going to follow SCM’s history rotation, which is a 6-year cycle, you can wait to start that when your oldest reaches 7th grade. You can really start with any time period you like, move forward, and then go back to finish up from the 1st period (Ancient Egypt). However, you’ll want to take a look at what is required for high school history where you live. For example, if you are in the United States and there is a specific American History requirement, you’ll want to make sure that you are in the Early Modern Times and Modern Times periods during the high school years.
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